Information Warfare now dominates the thinking of the best military minds. In future wars, the nation(s) that will prevail are those that dominate the "electronic battlefield." On the one hand there is a certain "duh" factor to all of this since it seems fairly obvious to even the most uninformed digerati that controlling this battlefield is central to military dominance. But on the other hand it is apparent that a larger, and perhaps more important, strategic imperative is being missed with our myopic focus on hard science.

But before I get to that I must admit that the rate the military is adopting technology is impressive. My brother in law, a major in the Army, provided some anecdotal evidence of what is being done on the electronic battlefield. The advances that have occurred during his time of service are compelling. The foot soldier of the future will be totally wired node of a war making network. There is no doubt that sophisticated use of networking technology will prove to be a competitive advantage.

However, as we are finding out in Iraq, the urban guerrilla wars that we are most likely to fight going forward will require a knowledge of foreign language, history, culture and other "soft" skills that are the antithesis of hard science. This is the domain of a liberal arts education that has been in decline in American universities for quite some time now, at least since WWII, if not before. So the real cadre of information warriors will not only need to master advanced technologies, but be creative generalists as well.